DOES ABSTENTION FROM PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES MAKE ONE LESS HUMAN?

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By Matthew Thomas

NARCOTIC: A narcotic is a type of drug that has the potential to be addictive. Such types of drugs should only be used according to a doctor’s prescription. Any other type of use is considered an abuse.

PSYCHOACTIVE DRUG: A psychoactive drug is a chemical substance that changes brain function and results in alteration in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behaviour.

MARIJUANA: “Chronic use of marijuana has been implicated in producing psychologic changes and production of what has been called an ‘amotivational syndrome’ characterized by diminished drive, lessened ambition, decreased motivation, loss of effectiveness, impairment of judgment, concentration, memory and communication skills and inability to set goals or manage stress.” (CLINICAL PHARMACY AND THERAPEUTICS, Fifth Edition)

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has recently passed The Medical Cannabis Industry Act. It pains to hear the level of recklessness from both sides of the House and from among the general public before, during and after the Debate.

This type of recklessness, especially coming from our lawmakers, can only be interpreted to be a deliberate act of deception as they jostle for the Rastas’ vote or to simply play upon the ignorance of the electorate.

Listening to the debate, one gets the distinct impression that marijuana has now become a panacea for all our ills. Legalizing it for recreational use will give the youth the privilege of a stress free life, and economically this will be SVG’s oil boom. I hear the futile argument comparing SVG with the developed world, USA, Canada, Uruguay, Portugal, Holland etc. Also we must ignore the UN convention on drugs.

Among some of the utterances are:

“Roland Patel Matthews, Opposition MP for North Leeward called on Parliament to rid itself of this prohibitionist attitude towards marijuana and decriminalize possession of up to two grams for recreational use. He also said that residents should be allowed to have up to five plants at their homes for medicinal or recreational use.” (iwitness news 15/12/2018)

In the SEARCHLIGHT of 14/12/2018, Matthews is quoted thus: “I don’t believe anybody has any problem with medical marijuana because they have tried it, you have tested it even before the scientists of the world. We the people of St. Vincent have been using marijuana for centuries. So there is no question of whether or not this side will support the medical marijuana industry.”

“Opposition Senator Kay Bacchus-Baptiste also expressed similar sentiments in her presentation that recreational marijuana should be legalized and she used an excerpt from the CARICOM Regional Commission on Marijuana to support this point. She also proposed that amendments be made to exclude marijuana being labeled as a dangerous drug in the drug Act. ‘Cannabis, marijuana is a victimless crime and yet we have marijuana being treated as if it is so dangerous.’” (SEARCHLIGHT, 14/12/2018)

The NEWS of 14/12/2018 under the caption: STATE LANDS FOR GANJA PRODUCTION, wrote: “’All of close to 3 500 acres of state land across SVG which are available and are suitable for cultivating cannabis for medicinal purposes are to be made available to farmers/investors in the industry.

There areindications that the farmers who lease those lands will either have to cultivate marijuana for theindustry or they will lose them to other farmers or investors involved in the medicinal cannabis industry… The Chief Surveyor has identified in Orange Hill 2 445 acres, in Langley Park 295 acres, in Colonarie 80 acres, in San Souci 60 acres, in Grand Sable 40 acres and Richmond 500 acres… According to the Chief Surveyor, we do have some 3 420 acres of lands that can be made available to the production of marijuana under the bill that is before us.’ Government Minister Montgomery Daniel who has responsibility for lands told Parliament on Monday.”

Philmore Isaacs, writing in the SEARCHLIGHT of 14/12/2018 under the caption: Marijuana, Another Promise of High Life? Wrote: “I am advancing four reasons why I support the decriminalization of marijuana… Precedence and equality before the law: Firstly, no one in SVG goes to prison for the production and processing of tobacco or sugarcane from which alcohol is obtained. Why should it be different for marijuana when the outcome of their use is similar: their destructive effects on the human body?”

Isaacs’ comparison of sugarcane to marijuana is a most unfortunate parallel. It is well established scientifically that the plant (herb) marijuana is a psychotropic substance that alters the brain and is thereby scientifically and legally classified as a drug and a narcotic.

When one consumes the marijuana plant, one consumes the THC directly that alters the brain. One can consume a whole field of sugarcane it will not have any effect whatsoever on the mental function. Alcohol (ethanol) is obtained through the process of fermentation of glucose from any organic material, C6 H12 O6 + Yeast = 2 (CH3 CH2 OH+ CO2) hence according to Isaacs’ argument, all root crops, corn, wheat, rice, etc can all be classified as a narcotic since they can all be processed into alcohol; so too can petroleum from which synthetic alcohol (ethanol) is made.

WHAT WILL BE THE LEGACY OF CARICOM POLITICIANS?

Throughout the years politicians/lawmakers and political activists have used their charisma and eloquence to con the electorate.

Their target always has been slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism. Relevant as it may appear to be, they never got beyond doing just that. The economic empowerment of the citizenry is of no significance. Dr. Eric Williams, arguably the most celebrated CARICOM Prime Minster, head of Government 1956-1981 (25 yrs) has not left a legacy of economic empowerment for the Trinidadian citizenry.

He came to office at the time of the oil-boom. Things were so good that Port-of -Spain was renamed “Port-and-Spend”. The constituency of Lavantille was his fortress. Calypsonian, the Mighty Sparrow stylized in song the invincibility of Dr. Williams, when in the words of his calypso – Get To Hell Out of Here, he sang, “I am politically strong, I am the weight of the town, don’t argue with me you can’t beat me in John-John”. John-John is a small community in Laventille. But what is the legacy? A very high level of mendicancy, poverty and violent crime such that even those born there are afraid to live or visit.

We love to blame the British, and rightly so, for every injustice they did to us throughout the period of slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism, but we never seem able to emulate the way they were able to exploit the wealth of this island in its abundance of volcanic rock, rich volcanic soil, sunshine and rainfall.

When the British handed us ministerial government in 1960, there were no less than one dozen stone crushing plants throughout the island owned and operated by the Government. Today there is none. No less than a dozen agricultural crops were exported to Britain and Trinidad also livestock to Trinidad on a weekly basis. Today very little is exported.

There was a pasteurization plant that supplied cow’s milk to grocery shops on a daily basis. Campden Park Experiment Station was the experimental livestock and agrarian component for the Faculty of the Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad.

We abandoned the exportation of banana to England, our main money earner for over fifty years. To build any Government project, almost everything including labour, has to be imported as is exemplified by the construction of the less than fifty-foot Cumberland River bridge at a cost of EC$13M in which everything, except a few boulders and the water were imported from Trinidad; similarly the very poorly resurfaced South Leeward road where almost all the aggregate came from Dominica.

For a government to seek to repossess lands from farmers who refuse to grow marijuana is authoritarian, dictatorial and communist.

Worse to have such a draconian piece of legislation unanimously supported in Parliament, is contemptuous, scandalously ridiculous, disgraceful and backward.

While some continue to wallow in ignorance, remember always that marijuana is not food.